The Wizard's Curse (Book 2)

by Jenny Ealey

  His father came and knelt next to Tarkyn, “Winguard my son, this is indeed Prince Tarkyn but as you have rightly said, he is nothing like his reputation.” He shook his head, “I don’t know how he did it, but he saved you from bleeding to death and saved your sister from the infection of the arrow.”

  “Winguard,” Tarkyn waited until the young man’s eyes had returned to rest on him. “I have a gift for healing. I take my strength inside you and work with you to repair yourself. So you are right. I was inside you. You are not going mad.”

  “So am I better now?”

  Tarkyn shook his head regretfully. “No, I’m afraid not. Not yet. We must still repair your leg. And this will hurt. I can give you two choices; either stay awake and bite down hard on something, or take a sedative of some kind to send you back to sleep while we put your leg back in place.”

  Winguard glanced uncertainly at his father. “I think I should stay awake.”

  Lord Tolward looked at Tarkyn in query, not rushing to accept his son’s offer of courage. Tarkyn shook his head and said, “I don’t know which is better. I have the power of healing but I’m a little short on knowledge. Just let me confer with Karlian first. Karlian, what is your opinion? Asleep or awake? And do you have the right herbs or will I find them for you?”

  Karlian frowned, “Your highness, you are a strange mixture of knowledge and ignorance if you don’t mind me saying so. How can you be so sure about mountain sunrise herb if you don’t know something as basic as this?”

  Tarkyn glanced over at Danton, “Has something about me changed? Why are people so presumptuous around me these days?”

  “I beg your pardon, Your Highness,” said Karlian hastily. “I am sorry if I offended you.”

  “So you should be, Karlian. I may be a combination of skill and ignorance but I am very clear where my limits are and I would not tell you something were so, unless I knew it to be true.” The prince frowned at Karlian, “Now, is it too much to ask that you answer my question?”

  “No, no, of course not, Your Highness. There would be a much better chance of putting the bone back in place if Winguard were asleep. I believe I can prepare something but it will take some time.”

  Tarkyn screwed his face up as he considered. “No. We cannot stay too long. Just a minute. I’ll think about it.” He closed his eyes and conferred with Summer Rain who sent back the image of a slingshot. Tarkyn spluttered with laughter. He opened his eyes to find himself the focus of several disapproving looks. “Sorry. It’s not a laughing matter, I know. But you will understand better when you see my solution.” He stood up and walked to the corner of the room, “A word, Danton.”

  Danton followed him and Tarkyn whispered Summer Rain’s suggestion. “Have you got one with you?” he asked more loudly.

  Danton frowned, “Yes, but I’m not as good at this as some.”

  Tarkyn chortled quietly. “We could ask everyone to leave the room and then open the window.”

  “Tarkyn, this is getting silly. And Winguard would have to make sure he shut his eyes.”

  “Fine,” said Tarkyn in a louder voice, “You go outside and see what you can find, while I talk to Winguard about what will happen.”

  Tarkyn returned to kneel on the floor next to the young man. “Winguard, I appreciate your offer of staying awake when you know it will hurt but I think the accepted wisdom is that we will be able to move your broken leg around better if you are not awake to resist it. Now in a minute when Danton returns, I will ask everyone to leave the room and you to close your eyes. Then we will put you to sleep using a little magic that will be quicker than waiting for Karlian’s concoction. Are you happy with that? Then hopefully when you wake up next time, your leg will on its way to being mended.”

  Winguard nodded, “Thank you Your Highness, for all you are doing for me.”

  Tarkyn looked at him for a moment wondering how he could turn it to his advantage but in the end, he merely replied, “It is a pleasure. I am glad I happened to be here so that I could help.”

  Danton returned and ushered everyone out into the hallway. “Won’t be long. Whatever you do, don’t open this door until I say so. Clear?”

  Although they were puzzled, the sorcerers agreed readily enough. Danton closed the door on them and put a chair up against it in case someone became curious. Then he crossed to the window and opened it. “Ready?” he asked.

  Tarkyn gazed at Winguard. “Now close your eyes and keep them shut. Your life depends on it. Can you do that?”

  As Winguard closed his eyes, Waterstone appeared at the window and shot him neatly in the head. In an instant the woodman was gone and Danton crossed to the door and opened it.

  “Right! Everyone back in who’s coming in.”

  Tarkyn had taken the opportunity to confer with Summer Rain and now knew what to do to repair Winguard’s leg. “Kalian, Winguard has been shot with a slingshot and will remain unconscious for perhaps twenty minutes.” Tarkyn put up a hand to quell the murmurs that greeted this. “So we need you and at least two strong men to manoeuvre Winguard’s bone into place. Don’t be afraid to pull hard. It will take some strength to pull against his muscles but you will meet less resistance now that he is unconscious. I am going into him to make sure you have it lined up properly. When it is in place, I will raise my hand like this, and then I want you to hold it steady until I say to stop.” He glanced around. “Everybody clear?”

  Winguard’s father and another man came over to assist while Danton remained aloof so that he could keep guard. When everyone was ready, Tarkyn placed his hand on Winguard’s shoulder and followed his power into the young man’s body. He flowed down into Winguard’s leg and watched as the two ends of bone wove back and forth past each other until they finally came to rest more or less in place. Tarkyn struggled to reconnect quickly with his own body in time to hold his hand up. Once he had succeeded, he let go and returned to begin the repair work on Winguard’s severed bone. The process of knitting such a large bone was slow and difficult so that after what seemed a long time, he had only just created a tenuous link between the two edges. He transferred his attention to the stressed, battered muscles and at least made some notable progress with them. He sent a short zap of anger into the knitting bone to ward off infection and closed off the gash that had allowed the bone to poke through. He realised that they needed time to bind up Winguard’s leg before he came round. So then he withdrew and returned to his own body.

  Tarkyn took a deep breath and opened his eyes. “You will need to hold his leg in place until someone splints it.” He shook his head, “I’m sorry. I tried but I have only just begun the repair work. He will have to put up with a splint and crutches for a few weeks.” Tarkyn smiled at his father, “But then he should be back to normal.”

  “My lord, I cannot thank you enough.”

  Tarkyn put up his hand, “I think you should thank Danton for his part in this. It was he who saw your need and strove to get help for you. It is not easy to disentangle me from the other demands on my time. And his shield saved your lives. If he had not prevented you from harming me, you would surely have died.”

  Lord Tolward hung his head, “I am truly sorry, my lord, that I doubted you, especially when I had given my guarantee to Danton that you would not be harmed.”

  Tarkyn looked away from him towards the window where his woodfolk friends waited for him. “I understand that it is hard to see your daughter in pain at the hands of someone with such a besmirched reputation. I wish I were not seen everywhere in such a terrible light, but” he shrugged, “unfortunately there is not much I can do about it. I cannot return to court to defend myself. So it is as it is.”

  The lord of the manor glanced at him, “Your Highness, will you tell me what really happened. Then I will undertake to support you and tell people the truth. It is the least I can do after what you have done for me.”

  Tarkyn’s face relaxed into a smile. “Thank you. That would be most kind of you. I accept your offe
r, provided you do not put yourself at risk on my behalf. All these people depend on you.” Tarkyn told him the truth as he remembered it.

  When he had finished, Tolward shook his head. “You have really been stitched up, haven’t you my lord?”

  Tarkyn gave a short laugh. “I suppose I have but I am not entirely blameless in all this, you know.”

  Lord Tolward nodded and said gravely, “In civil war, no one is blameless.”

  “It is not civil war.” Tarkyn frowned quizzically, “It is merely two older brothers getting rid of an irritating younger brother.”

  The older man looked at him. “You really don’t know, do you?”

  “I know my brothers fight cat and dog all the time and both want to be king, if that’s what you’re talking about.”

  “No. Everyone knows that.” said Tolward impatiently. “And everyone is sick of it. There was a huge groundswell of support for you to usurp the throne. We were organised and ready to approach you with the idea but then came the Tournament and your exile, and everything we had planned fell apart.” He paused and regarded the prince silently for a moment. “But having met you, I now know it would have fallen apart anyway. You would never have betrayed your brothers, would you?”

  “No, not then,” said Tarkyn quietly. “But then they hadn’t betrayed me. I do not acknowledge fealty to anyone any more. However, I have never had aspirations to be king and still haven’t. Only dire circumstances would compel me to consider it.” He nodded at his friend waiting patiently beside the lord’s daughter and smiled wryly, “Lord Danton also has high expectations of me. He thinks I’m the hope for Eskazor’s future.”

  “And so you are, my lord. Now that I know that you have not turned rogue and have gauged your calibre, I would agree with him. Your brothers are wreaking havoc. My son and daughter were out herding cattle when a band of cattle thieves shot at them and drove Winguard’s horse into a frenzied bolt. Eskazor is rife with tragedies like this. You saved my son and daughter today from the neglect of your brothers. No one is looking after the populace anymore.”

  Tarkyn gazed at him, “You have given me food for thought.” He paused, “Do you happen to know someone called Davorad, Lord of Stansbeck?”

  Lord Tolward snorted with derision, “You mean Jarand’s puppet?”

  “Oh no! Is he? Are you aware of the gathering of vigilantes in the encampment north of here?”

  “Of course. It is not far from here. Only a day’s ride. There are strange doings in that encampment. I believe they were even using wolves at one stage, heavens know why. Now the wolves are gone and it is rumoured that they intend to replace them with bloodhounds.”

  Tarkyn went still, “Bloodhounds, you say? Why would they do that?”

  Lord Tolward shrugged, “They are hunting someone. It might be brigands. It might even be you.”

  Tarkyn persisted, “And were you aware that it is financed by Davorad?”

  The lord looked disgusted. “No, I was not. In that case, we can safely assume that the whole thing is a ploy to show up Kosar’s incompetence in maintaining law and order. It may even be a gathering of forces to mount a coup. Constantly there is talk of some secret army they are planning to enlist to their cause.” He continued bitterly, “What it is not, is a genuine effort to support the people of Eskusor. We are left to protect ourselves against a mounting wave of outlaws.”

  “I only hope my brothers realise what is happening before it is too late. Lord Tolward, what you have told me concerns me greatly. I promise you I will think on it. But for now, I must go. I must reach the safety of the mountain foothills before dawn. Please do not attempt to follow me.”

  “But Sire, how may we contact you? I don’t want to lose you when I have only just found you.”

  Tarkyn thought hard. At last he said, “Do you have parchment and a pen I can take with me? There is a tree halfway up the ridge behind your barn. I will leave instructions on how to contact me in that tree. I am travelling south beyond the mountains over the next few months but I will be back. Look for me in the spring.”

  As Tarkyn stood to go, Winguard stirred and opened his eyes. “Goodbye, Your Highness. And may your friends continue to protect you as well as they have so far.”

  “What are you talking about, Winguard?” asked his father, crossing to kneel beside his son. “His Highness is only with Lord Danton.”

  Tarkyn frowned fiercely. “Did you open your eyes?”

  Winguard shook his head. “No my lord. But when you flow through me, I learn things about you. And I know the people you travel with, whoever they are, are your staunch allies. You are lucky to have such friends.”

  Tarkyn smiled, “Yes Winguard, I am. And now I must go. Look after yourselves. Make sure that poultice is put on your shoulder, Edelweiss. And you will have to endure crutches for a while Winguard, but at least you will have a perfectly good leg at the end of it. Come on, Danton. We have a long way to travel before morning.”

  “Just a moment,” said Lady Juniper, returning from the kitchen with a large bulging bag. “We have put together as much food as we could gather for your journey.” She smiled in turn at Danton and Tarkyn, “I would thank you for the lives of my children.”

  As they headed towards the front door, all the farmhands were lined up to bid them farewell and to thank them both. Lord Tolward saw them off at the door, “Thank you Danton for your care and your courage. And thank you my lord, words cannot express our debt to you.”

  “Goodbye. It was a pleasure to meet you all. Now go back to your children. They need you tonight.”

  Minutes later, the four of them collected Lapping Water and Summer Rain from the tree and headed back up the ridge.

  Chapter 18

  It was an hour before dawn when they reached the forest on the other side of the grasslands. Already the sky had lightened and the first birds were beginning the dawn chorus. The clear sky had let out all the heat of the earth and the early morning air was frosty. People’s speech came out in clouds of mist. Everyone was cold and tired and the children were whining with fatigue and hunger.

  “This is where life in the forest is undesirable,” murmured Danton to Tarkyn.

  Tarkyn nodded tiredly, “Still, I wouldn’t complain too much, if I were you. We’d have been here nearly two hours ago if we hadn’t deviated to Tolward’s house. And we could have rested more along the way.”

  Waterstone strode over, still full of energy. “Come on, you two. Not much further now. There are ready-built shelters just a little further into the woods. We can all collapse there and have a good sleep before the last leg of the journey to the mountainfolk.” He peered closely at Tarkyn, “Is it just the dawn light or are you looking pallid? No, I think maybe you’ve used up too much of your reserves. You might consider sleeping next to a tree or maybe sitting next to one while you have breakfast later. Hmm. I wonder if any of these shelters is big enough for you?” Waterstone went out of focus for a moment. “Some of the others will go ahead to check and build a quick extension if necessary. I think you need rest as soon as possible.” The woodman looked across at Danton, “He’s a great one for overcooking it, isn’t he?”

  Tarkyn rolled his eyes at being talked about, then said wryly, “Sometimes trying to respond to the expectations of two societies has its drawbacks.”

  “Your choice,” chorused Waterstone and Danton simultaneously, each sniping at the need for the other’s society to be considered.

  Tarkyn raised his eyebrows, “I’ll leave you two to fight that one out between yourselves. Let me know when you’ve reached a resolution.” So saying, he surged on ahead, leaving the woodman and the sorcerer a little non-plussed in his wake.

  “Hmm, something went a little awry there,” mused Waterstone. “Are we putting too much pressure on him, do you think?”

  Danton shook his head, “You haven’t demanded anything of him that he hasn’t demanded of himself. No. I think it was just the difficulty of responding to those injured kids
while we were on such a tight timeline. No one was forcing him. It was just an unfortunate circumstance that we couldn’t be caught in the grasslands. They walked on in silence for a few minutes before Danton said, “But I was listening to the conversation Tarkyn had with Lord Tolward , and I think the demands on Tarkyn are mounting from the sorcerers’ side.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “It began with what I said about him being the hope of Eskuzor. Then Stormaway reiterated it and last night, Tolward told him that they had planned a coup against Kosar and Jarand and had wanted Tarkyn to support them.”

  Waterstone frowned, “When was this?”

  “Just before Tarkyn was arrested.” Danton smiled slightly, “He wouldn’t have done it, of course. But he might now.” Seeing Waterstone’s look of consternation, Danton modified his statement. “Not right now. But maybe sometime in the future, if things don’t improve. Tarkyn told the lord to look for him in the spring, after we come back from our journey. He gave no undertakings, though.”

  Waterstone cleared his throat, a sure sign that he was worried, “Tarkyn was right. We will have to reach a resolution, if this is true. How can he be all things to all men? He can’t. Our societies are mutually exclusive.” He glanced at Danton. “We don’t want to lose him, you know. Not now. He is our forest guardian…and he’s Tarkyn.”

  Danton shook his head, “Even though I would like to see him in his brothers’ place for the sake of the sorcerers, for Tarkyn’s sake I would not.” He looked at the woodman. “I have known Tarkyn all his life. He has never been happier than he is now among you people. I would not like that to be taken away from him.”